Originally, I was going to write this as a Toturi Only entry, because only people who really have No Lives write in their online journals about going through a touchless carwash. But I thought, ah, what the hey, there has to be at least one No Lifer on my Friends List .... =)

Both of our families have always washed cars ourselves. I'm the only Black Sheep Car Owner in both families who just can't be bothered. The only time the family cars were done by someone else, were the times when my volunteer group did Donation Car Washes and I asked them to help us out, we'd do all the cars for $5 each. It went to charity anyway and Grandma would usually give us $20 for two or three cars.

So, last night, I went to pick up toturi (that's Husband Guy, BTW). I usually wait for him in the passenger pick-up zone at the Delta Vancouver Hotel Downtown Suite Hotel. As I sat, water started coming down on the car. Bubbly water. And it reeked of chlorine. *blech* >K{ I got out of the car when I thought the water had stopped. One of the security guys also came out to investigate. Apparently, there's a swimming pool on the 4th floor. It must be an outdoor pool and it must've been the Olympic Cannon Ball & Belly Flop Qualifiers going on up there. toturi had to hose down the car in the dark when we got home. Blah... I'm not waiting in that spot again.

We'd been curious about the touchless carwash at an Esso gas station ever since we drove by it while test driving the TSX. Self: write about the TSX test drive...

So, I took The Knight Ridah in to try it out.

It was only $8.99 (+ tax) which is a bit better than the hand car wash that I usually go to which is $12.00 (tax included). The hand car wash place also wipes down the inside and vacuums the floors for you.

Anyway, we were in dire need of gas anyway, so I gassed up and went through the credit card payment first. There was an option to pay for the carwash as well. I hit "Yes" and it asked me which process I wanted, the Speedy, the $8.99 Regular or the $10.99 SuperProtectant(?). I just picked the Regular. Maybe I should have picked the third one because it isn't too much more than the hand wash, but oh well. It charged the credit card and printed a Carwash Code on the receipt.

I drove over to the wash bay and there's a keypad just in front of the door. I keyed in the number on my receipt to make the bay door open. All the windows got closed at this point. I drove slowly into the bay.

As I'm going in, a jet of water blasts the underside of the car. It's a bit freaky if you're not expecting it. There's a display panel on the far wall of the wash bay in front of you that gives you instructions. It says "Drive Forward" in green, so I went slowly forward until it said "Stop" in red.

Then, you're supposed to put the car in Park and stay in the car.

There's a spray bar that looks something like this. It passed over the car on all four sides in three passes. The first to apply soap and let the car soak for 30 seconds or so. The progress display says "Soaking". On the second pass, the panel said, "Clear Protectant Fluid" or some such and I'm thinking, "uh dunno man, that sounds an awful lot like WATER to me" XD And I guess the third pass rinsed with plain water.

The display panel changed to "Drive Forward" again, so I drove slowly forward and out, same speed as I did when I drove in. There's an air jet that is supposed to push all the water off the car and that's how it "dries" the car. It doesn't dry it very well. There were still water droplets all over. I had to flick on the wipers a few times. I wonder if that was supposed to be an air drying thing and I drove too fast out of the bay... oops... =P

It cleaned quite well, the remaining chlorine streaks are gone, but the car might be spotty by tonight.

cripes! vancouver is expensive for cars. you should come to toronto. :)

you put your car in park? i always shift to neutral through car washes. you also gotta drive through *really slowly* when going through the dryer. shift it into drive, do not accelerate and brake to slow down even further. you want to be inching forward.